Scottish Conservatives are direct mailing the postcard below to 10,000 18 year-olds in target seats, highlighting SNP plans to stop under 21 year-olds from purchasing alcohol from off licences.
Murdo Fraser MSP described the Scottish Government’s proposals as "ludicrous, discriminatory and not addressing the fundamental issue." He continued: “Every 18 year old deserves to know what the SNP thinks of them.”
The leaflet looks awful and the wording is quite bland but the idea's excellent.
Posted by: Opinicus | October 05, 2008 at 00:29
You can do msot of the things on the list when you are 17 or even 16 too...
Posted by: Ulster Tory | October 05, 2008 at 00:32
The proof reader needs to be sacked, there is a glaring grammatical error. It should either read "that is what needs change" or " that is what needs to be changed". Currently it looks sloppy. Other than that it is fine.
Posted by: James Burdett | October 05, 2008 at 00:47
Good idea, and I hope they follow it with something similar now there plans afoot for the SNP and the Scottish Libdems to try and serve us up a dogs dinner of a local income tax policy which is supposed to replace the council tax.
Posted by: ChrisD | October 05, 2008 at 01:08
With regard to the phrase "that's what needs changed", I couldn't tell you if it's gramatically correct or not, but I can tell you that it's what most people would say - in Scotland at any rate - including people with actual educations and degrees, such as myself.
Given that this is aimed at 18-21 year-olds, perhaps we might be relaxed about exactly where we allow the line between grammatical correctness and effective communication to be drawn.
Posted by: Mr Eugenides | October 05, 2008 at 01:29
Mr Eugenides makes a good point, I often find myself making a grammatically incorrect post, but it sounds and feels right to me because I am Scottish.
Posted by: ChrisD | October 05, 2008 at 02:28
I'm sorry, but I think this postcard, as well as being badly produced and ungrammatical, sends out exactly the wrong message. Are we implying that there is no problem in Scotland with teenage alcohol abuse ? We may disagree with this proposed remedy, but surely we should accept that there is a valid concern about this. Do we really think that encouraging teenagers to drink should be one of our party's priorities ?
Posted by: johnC | October 05, 2008 at 05:37
The leaflet quite explicitly points out that Scotland has an alcohol abuse problem that needs sorting out - but that banning under 21s from purchasing something it's perfectly legal for them to drink is not the way to do it. If only London's Conservative Mayor thought on the same lines!
Must agree with other posters that it's badly designed though.
Posted by: WHS | October 05, 2008 at 07:16
This will be a vote winner - agree that the design of the card is not great though!
Posted by: Sally Roberts | October 05, 2008 at 08:55
Re supposed grammatical incorrectness, there is always a difference between the formally written and the colloquially spoken word. Informally written (such as this card) more resembles the colloquially spoken and is appropriate to the nature of the message.
I asked my resident Scot and she assures me that "needs changed" is unexceptionable usage --- and she's even more pedantic than I am on formal writing.
I am more annoyed that there would never be a counterpart to this sort of missive, on whatever topic: "English Conservatives trust 18-21 year olds on..."
'cos there ain't any such organisation, is there?! (ranted he, colloquially)
;-)
Posted by: Ken Stevens | October 05, 2008 at 09:38
Excellent, this should go down well with the student population. Glad to see the Tories assaulting the nanny state. My friensds and I used to buy from off-licences between those ages and none of us ended up in rehab.
Posted by: RichardJ | October 05, 2008 at 09:40
A most excellent issue to campaign on against the SNP. Shows that we are still the party of individual rights and fredoms.
Posted by: Tanuki | October 05, 2008 at 10:35
The correct place for people to consume alcohol is in a licensed public house. The general availability of alcohol has become a big problem and makes it very hard to control proxy and other sales. It also means that pubs are going out of business. Perhaps controversially I also think the law on sales to underaged in pubs is too strict. I would rather teenagers close to the age of sale were in a well run pub and supervised than out on the streets, drunk and causing trouble. Any solution should focus on limiting outlets for alcohol and using pubs which were the original idea for allowing supervised drinking.
Posted by: Matt Wright | October 05, 2008 at 10:59
"The correct place for people to consume alcohol is in a licensed public house."
Or the privacy of their own homes. Which would require going to an off licence. Who appointed you to dictate what the "correct" place to drink is?
"The general availability of alcohol has become a big problem and makes it very hard to control proxy and other sales."
I don't find it remotely problematic than I can easily obtain alcohol. The big problem is idiots who can't drink responsibly. I don't see why the rest of us should be penalised just because of them.
"It also means that pubs are going out of business."
Market forces. If people prefer to buy from an off licence why shouldn't they? Why should people be compelled to go to pubs just because you want them to.
"I would rather teenagers close to the age of sale were in a well run pub and supervised than out on the streets, drunk and causing trouble."
As a pub regular I don't want them in the pub. Well, any teenagers under 18 that is.
"Any solution should focus on limiting outlets for alcohol"
Which will just p*** off the majority of people who drink sensibly.
"and using pubs which were the original idea for allowing supervised drinking. "
Which will just p*** off the older customers who don't want a bunch of teenagers running around.
The solution is tougher sentences for the drunk and disorderly and more police patrolling the streets to catch them. If they're drunk and disorderly in their own home then as long as they're not disturbing the neighbours it's nobody else's business.
Posted by: RichardJ | October 05, 2008 at 12:10
I'm afraid that even as a strong Conservative I support this idea of the SNP. Very many 18 year olds are very clearly not responsible nor mature enough to have full adult privileges. There used to be a very apt saying 'Don't run before you can walk.'
Posted by: JS | October 05, 2008 at 17:23
"I'm afraid that even as a strong Conservative I support this idea of the SNP"
JS, to be honest, if you support this idea then you have not understood the very contradictory nature of this policy. Simple criminalising one very narrow age group by preventing them from buying a bottle of wine etc from an off license is not going to address the very real alcohol abuse problems in Scotland, which cover a much wider age group from the very young(under 18's) to those in their 70's.
On the design of the card, its an eye catching use of colours and will be effective in grabbing the attention of someone who sees it.
And remember, this is aimed at 18-21 year olds not some of us older folk.
Posted by: ChrisD | October 05, 2008 at 18:47
Richard J,
Well the Govt and councils do to varying degrees decide how alcohol is obtained and in affect what the correct place to drink is, and have done so under all political colours going back a very long time. I am obviously not suggesting people can't drink at home ( I would agree that "correct" is not the right term but maybe "preferred" is better) but what I am suggesting is that alcohol is too widely available and it would be preferable to have a system that encourages drinking of alcohol in pubs. We have a situation now where many petrol stations sell alcohol - sorry but this is just nuts!
I sympathise with the point that why should responsible people be punished for the actions of the irresponsible. In that sense we need to build a society that is more responsible but I still believe that Govts will need to control alcohol as they always have done. I am only suggesting that alcohol is too widely available and that licenses have always sought to control it.
Regarding your point about market forces, I don't and suspect many Conservatives don't believe in a pure ideology of market forces. Govts seek to limit behaviour to a degree and Conservative govts have been no different in that regard. I don't wish Govt to compel people to only go to a pub but I would suggest that measures that made it more likely that drinking occurred in a pub would be a good change.
I don't know your age but assuming you are over 40 I would ask you to cast your mind back. Teenagers did go to pubs, in part a blind eye was turned to it, but importantly their behaviour tended to be socialised by the adults there and if they misbehaved, their parents would soon find out.
I do agree with tougher sentences and bringing back drying-out cells and of course more police out on the beat. However be serious, widely available cheap and powerful booze is leading to youngsters getting absolutely bladdered drinking in the streets and causing trouble.
Posted by: Matt Wright | October 05, 2008 at 19:32
"I don't know your age but assuming you are over 40"
24!
Posted by: RichardJ | October 05, 2008 at 22:36
You know, in some families it really is not that uncommon for their 13 year old kids to have a small glass of red with Sunday lunch. On the Continent, where drinking attitudes are far more sensible, nearly everyone is happy for their children to have a drink with a meal.
You can't make one rule for a whole population on something like this!
Posted by: Stefan | October 06, 2008 at 22:27
Well done the Scottish Tories for standing up against this bit of mindless populism from the SNP. Perhaps somebody could tell boris? (http://schneiderhome.blogspot.com/2008/07/boris-johnson-is-illiberal-idiotic.html)
Posted by: James Schneider | October 07, 2008 at 21:18